Dramatic photos, videos of Huntington Beach rioting

Huntington Beach is cleaning up Monday morning after a fight broke out following the U.S. Open of Surfing, leading to a two-hour confrontation between police and unruly beachgoers.

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Eight people were arrested and several officers were injured Sunday night. Police in riot gear used tear gas and nonlethal rounds to disperse the crowd, which tipped over portable toilets and smashed storefront windows.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. John Domingo said city signs and vehicles were also damaged.

Video of the rioting shows people in the crowd rocking city vehicles while others jump-kicking or shoving portable toilets onto their sides.

Kyle Calder told KTLA the melee started when someone was hit with a ketchup bottle from a second-story restaurant. The person threw the bottle into the crowd, triggering a fight that expanded into a small-scale riot.

“That’s when the cops came and everything went mayhem from there,” Calder said.

Police with riot helmets and nightsticks closed in on Main Street, video shows. Some in the crowd coughed and wiped their eyes from the gas police fired to disperse the crowd. Some covered their mouths and noses with shirts.

Photo and videos from the scene show people tearing down city signs, one person dragging a stop sign into the middle of the street and throwing it down in front of police and another man throwing over a barricade.

The U.S. Open of Surfing draws thousands of people to Huntington Beach. Hundreds of people were still in the area when the unrest began, with many of them posting photos and videos to social media.

[For the record, 11:50 a.m. on July 29: An earlier version of this post included an Instagram from @dj_alex_goodrow, who tagged his photo #riot #huntingtonbeach. However, the photo is from a 2011 riot in Vancouver.]